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Titan's gravity field and interior structure after Cassini
Iess, L.; Durante, Daniele; Hemingway, D. J. +2 more
Since its arrival at Saturn in 2004, Cassini performed nine flybys devoted to the determination of Titan's gravity field and its tidal variations. Here we present an updated gravity solution based on the final data set collected during the gravity-dedicated passes, before Cassini's plunge into Saturn's atmosphere. The data set includes an addition…
Isotopic ratios of Saturn's rings and satellites: Implications for the origin of water and Phoebe
Clark, Roger N.; Brown, Robert H.; Cruikshank, Dale P. +1 more
Isotopic ratios have long been used to learn about physical processes acting over a wide range of geological environments, and in constraining the origin and/or evolution of planetary bodies. We report the spectroscopic detection of deuterium in Saturn's rings and satellites, and use these measurements to determine the (D/H) ratios in their near-s…
Observations of the chemical and thermal response of 'ring rain' on Saturn's ionosphere
Baines, Kevin H.; O'Donoghue, James; Moore, Luke +4 more
In this study we performed a new analysis of ground-based observations that were taken on 17 April 2011 using the 10-metre Keck telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Emissions from H3+, a major ion in Saturn's ionosphere, were previously analyzed from these observations, indicating that peaks in emission at specific latitudes were …
Kronoseismology III: Waves in Saturn's inner C ring
Nicholson, Philip D.; French, Richard G.; McGhee-French, Colleen A. +1 more
We investigate waves driven in Saturn's rings by planetary normal modes, concentrating on the previously unexplored inner C ring. In this region, the known waves all have exceptionally short wavelengths, which has proven problematic for previous studies that depended on the accurate estimate of wave phases for wave identification. However, detaile…
Cassini-VIMS observations of Saturn's main rings: II. A spectrophotometric study by means of Monte Carlo ray-tracing and Hapke's theory
Clark, R. N.; Nicholson, P. D.; D'Aversa, E. +9 more
This work is the second in a series of manuscripts devoted to the investigation of the spectrophotometric properties of Saturn's rings from Cassini-VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) observations. The dataset used for this analysis is represented by ten radial spectrograms of the rings which have been derived in Filacchione et al. (2…
Jupiter's auroral-related stratospheric heating and chemistry III: Abundances of C2H4, CH3C2H, C4H2 and C6H6 from Voyager-IRIS and Cassini-CIRS
Fletcher, L. N.; Irwin, P. G. J.; Orton, G. S. +4 more
We present an analysis of Voyager-1-IRIS and Cassini-CIRS spectra of Jupiter's high latitudes acquired during the spacecrafts' respective flybys in November 1979 and January 2001. We performed a forward-model analysis in order to derive the abundances of ethylene (C2H4), methylacetylene (CH3C2H), diacety…
The Cassini VIMS archive of Titan: From browse products to global infrared color maps
Le Mouélic, S.; Cornet, T.; Rodriguez, S. +11 more
We have analyzed the complete Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) data archive of Titan. Our objective is to build global surface cartographic products, by combining all the data gathered during the 127 targeted flybys of Titan into synthetic global maps interpolated on a grid at 32 pixels per degree (∼1.4 km/pixel at the equator), in …
Compositional variations of Titan's impact craters indicates active surface erosion
Janssen, M. A.; Cassini Radar Team; Werynski, A. +2 more
Titan, the only moon in the solar system with a considerable atmosphere, is host to a variety of exogenic processes that shape its surface. These processes form features that are quite similar to features on Earth, including sand dunes, rivers, and lakes. The combination of a thick atmosphere and active surface processes also leads to a scarcity o…
Spatial and seasonal variations in C3Hx hydrocarbon abundance in Titan's stratosphere from Cassini CIRS observations
Lombardo, Nicholas A.; Nixon, Conor A.; Achterberg, Richard K. +4 more
Of the C3Hx hydrocarbons, propane (C3H8) and propyne (methylacetylene, CH3C2H) were first detected in Titan's atmosphere during the Voyager 1 flyby in 1980. Propene (propylene, C3H6) was first detected in 2013 with data from the Composite InfraRed Spectrometer …
Interior properties of the inner Saturnian moons from space astrometry data
Lainey, V.; Noyelles, B.; Rambaux, N. +3 more
During the thirteen years in orbit around Saturn before its final plunge, the Cassini spacecraft provided more than ten thousand astrometric measurements. Such large amounts of accurate data enable the search for extremely faint signals in the orbitalmotion of the saturnian moons. Among these, the detection of the dynamical feedback of the rotatio…